Ferrari
Felipe Massa (6th)
“I can’t draw much satisfaction from this sixth place, given the potential we had here. My chances of finishing on the podium and also of fighting for the win given how things went, just evaporated when I was passing Karthikeyan. He was going very slowly on the dry line but then, as I was passing him on the wet, he accelerated and I lost control of the car ending up in the wall.

Alonso retired for first time since Belgium 2010

Fernando Alonso (DNF)
“Everything went wrong, right from this morning when we saw it was raining. We had our best qualifying of the year and we found ourselves starting behind the safety car, when I felt that for me, the intermediates were the best tyre.

Finally there was the coming together with Button, which as a final insult left my car beached on a kerb and I was unable to get going again. It’s a real shame because today we really had a good race pace but we were unlucky: that’s not a feeling I have, it’s a fact. When you don’t score points then you must immediately turn the page and look to the next race.”

Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principal
“Regret is the feeling affecting all of us at the end of a chaotic Canadian Grand Prix. Today we had the potential to fight for the win, but everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Two incidents in particular – the collision between Fernando and Button and the passing move on Karthikeyan that caused Felipe to go of the track – leave a bitter taste in the mouth.”

Sauber

Kobayashi was second when race was suspended

Kamui Kobayashi (7th)
“We have scored points and in the end this is most important. We have proved we are good in the wet, but when the track became dry my pace wasn’t good enough to defend my position. I really tried to bring the car home in a better position, but it didn’t work out.”

Pedro de la Rosa (12th)
“First of all I want to thank the FIA. It stopped the race when it became too dangerous and I think every safety car call was right. Before the red flag it became impossible to drive.

“It was an extremely eventful race, especially for somebody who had just stepped into a car at short notice. I will not forget these days here, this is for sure.”

Toro Rosso
Jaime Alguersuari (8th)
“I am very happy because to finish eighth having started last from the pit lane is a really good result for us. I am also very pleased that I have scored my first points of the season, even if I know there is still room for improvement on my side and in terms of how we set up the car to suit me, especially in qualifying.

“This result will give everyone a lot of motivation to keep working hard. It gives us wings as we head for my second home race in Valencia! And the spectators deserve a mention for sitting in the cold and wet for so long, but I think they saw a good motor race.”

Sebastien Buemi (10th)
“Of course, I am pleased to have scored a point as that is always important. However, I am a bit disappointed because I think I could have done better myself and I’m not sure if changing to the slicks so early worked for me.

“But, looking at the overall result, including Jaime’s eighth place, I am very happy for the team, who did such a good job.”

Williams
Rubens Barrichello (9th)
“Starting from 16th, I am happy that I managed to score more points for the team. Unfortunately, it should have been more but I lost a potential 6th or 7th place when I went offline to avoid Kobayashi after the last safety car went in.”

HRT
Vitantonio Liuzzi (13th)
“It was a crazy race. The crazier it is the more we like it though. It was a great result for us, for everybody in the team, because we’ve done everything right since Saturday.

“We hope this won’t be our best finish of the season; we hope to finish even better in the future and will push for this”.

Narain Karthikeyan (17th)
“It was a very interesting race for us, we achieved our best position yet. I drove well today in wet and dry conditions. I overtook a few cars, D’Ambrosio and Glock, and I’m very happy to finish the race”.

Colin Kolles, HRT team principal
“Today we achieved our best result in the history of Hispania Racing. It was a great race with a positive ending for the team. We made a step forward in terms of performance and in the championship position. The team is working very hard and it is a deserved result. The drivers did a very good job driving more aggressively after the track was drying up. We will have to improve further and target the 10th position in the championship. ”

Virgin
Jerome D’Ambrosio (14th)
“It was just an unbelievable race. We were in a racing situation for about four hours. I’ve never experienced anything like that. It was something quite special. It was a great race and really good experience for me.”

Timo Glock (15th)
“It was an unusual and difficult race. I think it’s one of the longest races I’ve ever raced in! It was a bit of a shame in the last part of the race as I had quite a good pace and I managed to catch and pass Trulli. But then I had a massive lock-up on both front tyres which cost me badly at the end.”

Lotus
Jarno Trulli (16th)
“That was a very eventful race. It started well but I struggled all afternoon with the brakes and even though I was able to get them up to temperature I think they glazed after the first safety car and I couldn’t recover them.”

Heikki Kovalainen (DNF)
“Unfortunately my race came to an end with a driveshaft failure. When we restarted I lost drive pretty much immediately and had to retire which is obviously a disappointing end to the weekend. It’s just one of those things, nothing I could do about it so hopefully we’ll have better luck in Valencia and keep pushing on.”

Mike Gascoyne, Lotus chief technical officer
“After a very strong weekend that was not the sort of race we wanted to have. We did have a strong weekend in terms of the car’s performance so while that was not the best race we will ever have, I think we can see it as another stepping stone in the development of the team.”

Force India
Adrian Sutil (DNF)
“At the start of the race the visibility was extremely poor and there was very little grip. I had problems with the full wets so I switched to the intermediates quite early on, which were good for a few laps until the rain got too heavy.

“At the restart I was doing quite well until I got too close to Rosberg when the safety car was out. All the cars ahead of me slowed down a lot at the hairpin and I just got caught out, which damaged my front wing. But the car still felt okay and I didn’t lose too much time. After the drive-through penalty, I decided it was worth the risk of switching to dry tyres, but it was maybe a few laps too early. I had quite a big snap on my out lap and touched the wall, which broke the left rear suspension.”

Paul di Resta (DNF)
“The weather conditions were very bad today and given the intensity of the rain it was absolutely the right decision to stop the race.

“After the restart I think things were going well until I lost my front wing against Nick (Heidfeld) at the chicane when he cut across me. That gave me a drive-through penalty, which I was quite surprised to receive because it only really compromised me.

“After that I was coming back through the field and I was pushing to pass Rubens (Barrichello) in the final few laps. Unfortunately I pushed a bit too hard and clipped the wall, which gave me a puncture. That’s why I had to park the car. It’s a shame because we had a strong car today and we could have come away with some important points.”

Sauber
Kamui Kobayashi (13th, Q2 – 1m 15.285s)
“It is a difficult weekend for us. My biggest problem here is driving over the kerbs. I have an overall lack of grip and find it really tricky to get to the limit with the car.”

Pedro de la Rosa (17th, Q1 – 1m 15.587s)
“It is obviously a very eventful time for me. Yesterday morning I didn’t expect to sit in a racing car, and this morning I actually didn’t expect a lot from qualifying. It is not easy to familiarise yourself with the car and all the new buttons in such a short space of time.

“Of course, the crash I had this morning didn’t help either. I lost the car and then also a bit of confidence goes. I am very happy the team managed to repair the car and I want to thank them.”

Peter Sauber, Sauber team principal
“First of all I’d like to thank the mechanics who have had a lot of work this weekend, and did a fantastic job to get two cars ready for qualifying. Kamui finished qualifying in P13, and that’s the same position he had in Monaco where he was able to deliver a great result. Considering Pedro only learned yesterday after one o’clock that he was going to race this weekend, he did an excellent job making it into Q2. Congratulations!”

Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi (15th, Q2 – 1m 15.334s)
“I would say we are more or less where I thought we would be, fighting with the Williams and the Saubers. My best lap was pretty good, but I’m a bit disappointed that half a tenth of a second cost me two places.

“Now we must wait and see what happens tomorrow, because I think our race pace is a bit better than what we could produce in qualifying today.”

Jaime Alguersuari (18th, Q1 – 1m 16.294s)
“I have been struggling under braking and, after the morning, we changed something on the set-up to try and improve the car for qualifying. It looked a bit more positive, but I locked up the brakes and flat-spotted the front left tyre which limited my performance on that lap.

“It’s important that we try and learn from this session, to see why we are struggling so that we can improve our qualifying performance in Valencia in two weeks time and give me a better feeling from the car.”

Giorgio Ascanelli, Toro Rosso technical director
“The result of qualifying is pretty much where I expected us to be, although maybe a little bit better than expected with Sebastien.

“With Jaime, we are still struggling, as we have not found a way of giving him a car in which he can trust.

“I am hoping for a dry race tomorrow, because if it rains, I think we will be at a disadvantage.”

Lotus
Jarno Trulli (19th, Q1 – 1m 16.745s)
“I’m pleased with the performance today. The gap to the guys ahead keeps coming down and I think with the rain tomorrow it’s going to be an eventful race, and hopefully we’ll be in a position to take advantage.”

Heikki Kovalainen (20th, Q1 – 1m 16.786s)
“A pretty good session for me today. The car felt fine and the strategy worked out as we wanted it to so I think we did what we set out to. Little by little we keep on improving and I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow – it’s going to be eventful and I think what we’ve shown all season is that we can fight with the guys ahead, so let’s see what happens.”

Tony Fernandes, Lotus team principal
“I am very happy with today. From my perspective that was the best qualifying of my short career in Formula One because we showed that we did not have to rely on other teams making mistakes or using different tyre strategies to finish the session with a very small gap to making it into Q2 on merit.

“That is a clear sign that the hard work being put in across the team is paying dividends as we are genuinely edging ever closer to the midfield.”

Mike Gascoyne, Lotus chief technical officer
“That was a good qualifying session for us and overall it has been a very solid weekend so far for the whole team.”

HRT
Vitantonio Liuzzi (21st, Q1 – 1m 18.424)
“It will be an interesting Sunday. We showed today that we have made a step forward; we’re ahead of our closest competitor so we’ve got an interesting race ahead.

“For me the 107 percent rule is not a problem anymore but, for sure, in this kind of circuit where KERS and DRS make a difference, we weren’t that far off it but it’s not something that should worry us for the future, we must just focus on beating our rivals.”

Narain Karthikeyan (23rd, Q1 – 1m 18.574)
“I struggled with the warm up on my first set of tyres, something changed in the car from yesterday to today.

“ I’ve made some progress in the last few races, I’m only a tenth away from Tonio so, after five and a half years out of Formula One, it is a good feeling to be so close.”

Colin Kolles, HRT team principal
“I think it has been proven that we have made a step forward, we qualified ahead of the Virgins and the gap with Lotus is smaller than in previous races and it could’ve been even smaller.

“For tomorrow we don’t know the weather conditions, the forecast is rain but this could change. If it rains it will be a crazy grand prix, it could turn out to be a lottery which traditionally favours the smaller teams.”

Virgin
Timo Glock (22nd, Q1 – 1m 18.537s)
“Quite a tough day for us I think. We tried to concentrate on getting a setup for wet conditions as the forecast was strongly indicating rain and so our downforce level is more suitable for wet conditions than for dry. The predictions are still uncertain but we hope this will work in our favour. We just have to see what tomorrow brings.”

Jerome D’Ambrosio (Q1 – 1m 19.414s)
“It’s been a tough 24 hours since my crash yesterday – both for me and the team.

“The car felt completely different to yesterday and clearly Timo’s time is more representative of what we should have achieved in qualifying. I am very appreciative of the fact that the stewards have permitted me to race and I’m now focusing on tomorrow.”